Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) Initiatives Toward Green Growth: Lessons from Korean Experience - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 355

In principle, the EIP is a resource-symbiotic network constructing a food-web of
resources and wastes, creating a closed loop. However, the stench is not a resource
in which the project is interested. A zero-emission approach which is popular in
Japan, can be considered in this case, but the governing ministry is the MCIE and
not the Ministry of Environment. MCIE is more interested in recycling
and energy-efficiency issues than environmental ones. This implies that MIP and
BJFEZ began the project with poor assumptions.
The cooperation between businesses and local authority in the EIP project is
essential for the successful promotion of the project. Despite this need the attitude
of the public officials was not only passive but skeptical due to sectionalism and
display administration which are prevalent in the Korean administrative culture.
MCIE was in charge of the pilot project to construct the EIP. However, the post of
environmental affairs in the local authority manages the project. Due to section-
alism, the EIP project is considered an extra duty by the local environmental post.
In this situation, the pertinent post has been rarely interested in the EIP project and
cooperation with MCIE has not been effective. Particularly, the City of Jinhae and
Gyeongnam Province seems passive in developing the project (Kim 2007 ).
After the central government launched the pilot EIP project in 2005, the central
government created relevant policies and directed local authorities to promote the
project substantially. Since then, local governments have developed very few ideas
about the project or policy means to promote it. In addition, government author-
ities, regardless of their level, have not secured the budget to support the project.
Local authorities do not concentrate efforts on securing extra funds because the
project is considered an extra duty.
Previous studies on EIP in other countries indicate that the EIP project requires
more funds than ordinary industrial park management costs. Therefore, the
financial support from the public sector is necessary considering the social ben-
efits. However, in the case of Macheon Industrial Park, there is no substantial
support plan for funds from central government or the local government. There is
no financial support program because the basis of environmental policy is the
polluter-pays principle.
The existing support program suggested by the public sector requires some
modification to draw more businesses into the EIP project. Businesses want sub-
stantial subsidies but the government does not have any specific support program.
The reality is that just emphasizing the conceptual superiority of the EIP cannot
realize the project without any support in Korea. Structured display administration
and the absence of concrete policy measures generate administrative lethargy and
risk-averse behavior. The EIP project in the view of local public employees is
nothing but a mere fad, and thus given a low priority.
Because the long-distance network between the pertinent industrial complexes
makes the original concept of EIPs unclear, the project manager tried to exclude
MIP from the entire project. MIP has not been excluded from the project yet, but
the fact is the manager tried to launch a separate project targeting MIP. The
interim assessing group of MCIE pointed out that the pilot project in Gyeongnam
Province is not feasible economically due to the long-distance transport of wastes